Electric fencing composed of an electrical conductor is commonly used to form a barrier or fence for containing livestock such as horses and cattle. As is known, such electric fencing provides a slight electric shock to the livestock when they come in contact with the conductor.
Reference may be made to the following U.S. patents of interest describing such fencing conductors and power sources for supplying electrical impulses to the fence: U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,291,897; 4,155,083; 2,348,234; 2,316,211; 2,333,224; 2,375,458;:2,415,943; 2,981,854; 3,110,891; 3,230,518; 3,655,994; 3,655,995; 3,747,897; 3,772,529; 4,220,949.
Several problems have been encountered in the conductive wires used for currently available electric fencing material. In particular, prior fence conductors when broken between mounting posts tend to recoil. This forms a potentially dangerous condition for valuable livestock such as horses or cattle which entangle their legs in the coils of broken fence conductors and cannot easily extricate themselves from this entrapment. Often, the entangled livestock become so mutilated that they must be destroyed. Another major problem is the low visibility of currently available electric fencing which has become a serious hazard to persons operating snowmobiles, dirt bikes, etc. While painting of the wire with high visibility paint has been proposed to alleviate this hazard, this leads to a significant increase in the maintenance time and expense in maintaining any such high visibility paint on long runs of fencing wire which is continuously exposed to the environment.
A further continuing problem is that the conductive wire often contacts vegetation such as weeds along the fence path. Such contact is undesired since it short circuits the electrical charge on the conductive wire, particularly in wet conditions. Such undesired short circuiting reduces the effectiveness of the electric fence. Attempts have been made in the past to solve this weed problem by modifying the electrical power supply, such as described in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,316,211; 2,333,224; and 2,375,458.
Thus, it is highly desirable to provide an electrically conducting material for use as an electric fence for containing livestock which provides high visibility as a safety factor for humans, which doesn't kink or coil when broken so as to protect livestock, and which reduces the tendency to short circuit on contacting vegetation such as weeds. In addition, it is desired that such electric fencing be of high tensile strength, lightweight, easy to work with and install, provide a neat appearance with a minimum of maintenance required, and be able to work with standard electric fence charging apparatus.